- Dele Alli has been pictured back in first-team training with Everton this week
- It comes as the midfielder has not played for the Merseyside club in a year
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Dele Alli has been pictured back in Everton training this week as the Toffees midfielder targets his first appearance for the club in over a year.
The 27-year-old moved to the Merseyside club back in January 2022 and subsequently went on to make 13 appearances for the Blues before going out on loan to Besiktas in August of that year.
Alli returned to Everton in the summer after a difficult spell with the Turkish Super Lig outfit, before admirably opening up with his struggles with a sleeping tablet addiction that had been brought about due to several childhood traumas.
The England midfielder has not played since February and has been working in recent months to overcome a long-standing groin injury.
Alli had been pictured over the summer returning to train on his own, with Sean Dyche welcoming him back to the club.
Dele Alli has been pictured back in first team training with Everton at Finch Farm this week
The Toffees midfielder was seen embracing with several of his team-mates while also working in the gym
After having not played since February, Alli is eyeing up a return to the pitch and is ramping up his training programme
Everton fans had also welcomed the midfielder back, displaying a banner at Goodison Park during their 1-0 defeat by Fulham earlier this season, that read: ‘We are with you Dele. Together we are stronger.’
While he is yet to feature under Dyche, it seems he has taken another step forward in his return to the pitch, with Alli being pictured in training this week for the Toffees with his team-mates.
The forward was seen taking part in several drills on the training pitches with his colleagues while also working in the gym with a medicine ball.
He was also pictured embracing Abdoulaye Doucoure, who scored on Sunday to help Everton claim a 2-0 win against Chelsea.
Ahead of Everton’s victory against Newcastle last Thursday, Dyche gave an update on how Alli was progressing claiming that he would be joining up with the group within the next week.
‘He is going well,’ the Everton manager said in a press conference.
‘He is back on the grass with the sports science and fitness side, going through football-related drills, but the actual freedom to come and join in with us is not there yet.
Alli had been suffering from a long-standing injury, with Sean Dyche recently claiming that he was some way off returning to first-team action
Alli returned to Everton in the summer following a difficult loan spell in Turkey with Besiktas
There has also been speculation that Everton are hoping to renegotiate the complex deal they had agreed with Tottenham to sign him
‘Hopefully over the next week he will start slowly blending in. He still has a bit to go because he has been out for a long time, he needs a game programme, but to get him back on with us would be really pleasing for him because he has been so unlucky.’
Everton had acquired Alli from Tottenham via a complex deal that could see the Toffees pay the London outfit £10million, once the midfielder has played 20 games for his new club.
So far, Alli is seven games away from that milestone, and it was recently claimed that the Blues could potentially hope to re-negotiate that arrangement, with Dyche hinting that the club’s director of football, Kevin Thelwell, had been speaking to Tottenham behind the scenes.
‘Thelwell has had a couple of phone calls, just lightly in the background,’ Dyche said in November. Look, where do you see it?’ Dyche said. ‘But nothing has changed at the moment.’
